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[encoder]

so

as you stated causal has the problem of income and indie has the problem of exposure.
then in theory if you bind these 2 together you got a huge pile of sht off your head.

next question: is it possible?
yes it is.

the stuff that scares me, that i played a vast variety of causal games and did not saw your site till today. how the hell do you still manage to sell a game?

what i think works for best to get a causal out on the portals what is exactly or at least resembles the real deal you sell on your site. be careful, if you screw up the causal game, you might have to rename your site. and do not - in any case - name your causal version "demo". you might get some payment from advert to. i mean if you get it right a sht game can get you more then the next big thing.

on the other hand the causal business is pretty open for newcomers and there are a ton of references out there. especially case studies. they are my favorite, they tend to go directly for business.

and people will certainly pay 50 for a good multiplayer. advertise multiplayer a bit more. and make a game based on that.

[Alex May]

Do you mean "casual"? It just undermines your advice a bit that you can't spell it, regardless of your English skills / first language. From what background of experience are you speaking?

[Ivan]

Jeez, Alex, maybe he meant "causal" as in "causality"

[Christian Knudsen]

What do these games cause then?

[encoder]

you know what the freaky hell i am talking about.

there is
LEZ GIT AT AWN!
and
We Be Jammin'
on the front page.

just please replay to the post that how genius i am, or something. 

[encoder]

What do these games cause then?

orgasm

[agj]

Regardless of the spelling, I could not understand a thing you wrote there.

[Vlad]

Just read this post and am surprised at its timelessness (holy crap this is the first reply in 120 days!?).

[jack_norton]

While I'm not experienced / successful as Fost, I wrote some time ago a blog post with 5 golden rules for indies. I think they still apply. If you're interested check here:
http://www.winterwolves.net/blog/2010/07/five-golden-rules-for-new-indies/

[Paul Eres]

that 'don't do an epic' game is a particularly good point, although it's not what i follow myself. my first commercial game i made in 6 months (immortal defense), but my second one is taking 4+ years (and may take 4.5 years by the time it's done). i didn't expect it to take this long but it's a particularly challenging game to make. but after it's over i'm going to make small games for a long while i think, not only for business reasons but also for sanity reasons.

[Tuba]

Just saw this thread, nice read, though some tips are a little outdated, not sure if the tips about sales are so valid with the Appstore and Steam being so accesible..

Trying to make an "epic" game is one of the most common reasons I've seen for projects to fail, "epic" ideas should be kept for when you have enough experience and resources to make them, not to be made as your first game.

[Paul Eres]

oh, i definitely have the experience. i've been making games since 1994, and have made dozens of them. even so, it's not something i'd want to do with every game.

[Tuba]

You should be fine 

One of these days I was talking to some guys that were developing a game for 10 years now.. and it's their first game!

I've seen a bunch of young indie wannabes wanting to make a "Final-fantasiesque MMO with God of War style combat" or something like that, and failing, and that's sad

[Paul Eres]

they've been around for a while. there were people like that even 10 years ago on the ohrrpce forum (although mmorpgs weren't common or popular back then so instead they just wanted to make epic single-player jrpgs).

[Destral]

10 years on a game seems like a lost cause, especially for an indie game. Then again, the closest comparison I can draw is to Duke Nukem forever, which has taken 12 so far, and is an established and massively popular IP.

But if it's your life's work, then I suppose no amount of time is too long to get it finished.

Personally, I think it's better to work on smaller games until you are successful, and _then_ work on the multi-year projects. Of course, 'successful' is a relative term, and the conditions for it change from individual to individual.